Submission - Ephesians 5:21

For some of you, this past week has been pretty stressful. For some of you, this past lifetime has been pretty stressful so I have some characteristics to see if you and your family are stressed, just so you will know. That way you can be working on it.

1. Bizarre and Recurring Dreams
2. Jaw and Tooth Pain
3. Hair Loss and Changes
4. Stomachaches and Intestinal Problems
5. Twitching
6. Acne
7. Regular Illness
8. Irregular Periods and Severe Cramps
9. Itchy Skin and Rashes
10. Abdominal Fat
     

If that is the way it is at your house, you may have stress in your life. Everybody with a job that requires you to work with people probably makes the joke that this job would be great if it weren’t for all these people. People cause stress. It is universal and for all times. Everybody is busy and everybody gets their nerves in a knot every now and then.

 

There are libraries full of books and tapes on how to de-stress and how to make the most of your time and how not to let people bother you. These people have some good ideas like get enough sleep, de-clutter your space, set boundaries, be positive, and take time for yourself. Those aren’t bad ideas to try but why is it that even after you do all of those things, somebody can walk up and with one sentence, send your blood pressure through the roof?

 

I know that we have so many things going right now these days and everything seems to be happening at once and everybody wants your full attention for everything they are doing that you sometimes don’t feel like being Christ-like. Your spouse is getting on your nerves, your boss, your employees, your kids are all acting crazy. Why don’t they listen to you? You know you have the right answer. It’s obvious and yet everybody wants to do something else. Crazy people!

 

Does that sound like your house, your job, your family…your church?  Well, the Bible has some wise words for all of us. Imagine that. Our passage this evening is in Ephesians 5, verse 21.  “²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Now, good luck finding that in any of those self-help books but if we can get that right then it will manifest itself in all of our relationships. If we submit to one another out of reverence for Christ then our relationship with our spouse will honor the Lord. If we can submit to each other out of reverence for Christ then our relationships at home will honor Christ and also for our relationships at work. If we submit to one another out of reverence for Christ then our whole lives will honor Christ.

 

There is, of course, one small problem. When I say the word “submit” what is your natural reaction? I can almost guarantee you that your first natural reaction was not. “Oh, ok. No problem. That’s easy.” Right? It’s the same problem we had over in chapter 4, verse 2 where it says to be completely humble and gentle, with patience and love. Oh, sure. Want me to give a million dollars away too?

There are at least 3 questions that come up when one considers the prospect of submitting to another person. They are good and natural questions and need to be answered.

1) If I submit to my husband, parents or boss, does that mean that I am inferior to them?

2) If I don’t look out for myself, then who will?

3) What if the person to whom I submit abuses their role?

 

To answer all 3 of those questions it is helpful to know exactly what that word “submit” actually means. It was originally a Greek military term meaning to arrange in military fashion under the control of a leader. It shows order and purpose. In non-military use it was a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility and carrying a burden. It quite literally means “to put under”. (Strong’s Concordance)

Now, does putting yourself under someone else mean that you are inferior to that person as in question 1? Martin Luther wrote that “we are to sharply distinguish between these two, the office and the person.” As a person, we are all created equally. Since this is a military term, let’s think about how the military operates. Everyone in the military has a rank. Without it, there would be chaos. Nothing would get done.

My Uncle Bill is quite a character and evidently always has been. When he joined the army they, of course, sent him to boot camp. He said he was there for only a couple of weeks and they sent another group of young men to the camp to start their basic training. Uncle Bill thought it would be funny to wake the brand new recruits up in the middle of the night and claim he was a sergeant. He made them get dressed and do pushups and even got them out in the yard to do some marching. He screamed at them and told them they were worthless and all the stuff the real sergeant had been screaming at him.  He thought that was real funny until the next day when they figured out what happened and made him stand in front of everybody in camp and salute himself in front of a mirror and order himself to do pushups. True story. See, without order, the military would collapse and so would the church and so would our lives and our relationships. But at the same time, if the lowliest private is trapped behind enemy lines, the military will still do everything possible to get him back because they recognize the value of the man as a person.

John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world…” He died for everybody, not just the famous people or the rich or the ones who make laws. What you have to realize is that part of the definition that says to submit is a voluntary act of putting yourself under another. And what happens when you put yourself under someone? You lift them up. It’s not about being inferior. It is about voluntarily lifting others up out of reverence for Christ.

The second question that might be asked is, “If I don’t look out for myself, then who will?” And it is a shame that this question has to be asked but it’s a natural. If I lift other people up; if I submit myself to others out of reverence for Jesus, then who is going to lift me up and meet my needs?

My first response to that question is that we are not guaranteed to have anybody in our life to meet our needs as we see them. I’m sorry to be blunt but it is just a fact. Ask Paul who is writing this. He spent his whole life lifting others up and lifting Jesus up and there were times in his life when I think we can all agree that his needs as we would define them were not met. You know the passage in II Corinthians 11 where Paul describes his hardships; beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, hungry, thirsty, etc.

But there is something else I want us to see about this verse and that is that it is a command. Paul is not asking. He is not saying, “Hey, it would be nice if you could…” This is a command to submit to each other. And what happens when we are obedient to a command? BOOCOD? There are blessings of obedience and consequences of disobedience.

What happened when Abraham was obedient and left his comfortable home? Blessings. What happened when David was obedient and killed Goliath? Blessings. What happened when Peter was obedient and got out of the boat? Blessings. What happens when Unchained Biker Church is obedient and preaches the Gospel in prisons? BLESSINGS! When we are obedient to what God tells us to do, God takes care of His children. It may not be how we think it should be done. But He always takes care of us.

Lastly, when you are submissive to others in a church, do you know what happens? What have I said about our attitudes? They are contagious. If you walk into a church where everybody has to have their way, how are you going to act? But when we as a church submit ourselves to each other in reverence for Christ, it starts to catch on. It is not the default attitude for people and so sometimes it may take a while but God sees it and blesses it and pretty soon we are known as a church that doesn’t have stress or division or members talking behind each other’s backs. We are known as a church that has a passion for people and a passion for Jesus which is just how we want to be known.

The last question I want to address today is if I submit to someone, what if they abuse that submission? What if they take advantage of me? This could happen in any one of these roles; as a wife to a husband, a child to a parent or a slave to a master or even right here in the church.

To answer that, we must first see where this authority comes from. It comes from God. God is a God of order and has established certain authority or leadership roles. He tells wives, children and workers to be submissive but the husband, parents and bosses must discern the Lord Himself has given them that authority and it is not to be abused. It is the same with all Christians. We must submit out of reverence for Christ who not only wields the authority but also humbled himself as a servant.

So that submission that we are commanded to give is not unconditional. That authority is not unlimited. The submission required is to God’s authority delegated to human beings. If, therefore, they misuse their God-given authority by commanding what God forbids or forbidding what God commands then our duty to submit no longer holds and to do so would disobey and dishonor God.

So, we see that submission does not make you inferior to the other person. We will be taken care of by God and be blessed when we submit to others and we see that authority is not unconditional. So it should be real easy now that we understand, right? No problem?

I hear you. I do. “Todd, I just can’t do it. I know I should but I just can’t. I’ve been burned before and I just can’t do it.”  As I have told you several times before…you are exactly right. You can’t do it. No matter how hard you try you will not be able to submit, at least not for long. But when you come to that realization, you are right where you are supposed to be.

You see, the answer is back in verse 18. Let’s go back and read that. Not the part about not getting drunk although those are wise words but the latter part. “Be filled with the Spirit.” Everything past verse 18 supposes that you are filled with the Spirit. You can’t speak to one another with spiritual songs unless you are filled with the Spirit. You can’t submit to your husband for any length of time without being filled with the Spirit and so on for children, workers and members of this church.

Everything Paul talks about here in Ephesians hinges on being in Christ; you do it through Christ; you do it out of reverence for Christ. You remember what Paul said earlier about Christ being the cornerstone of the church? You can’t do any of this without Christ being foremost, filling and working through you. It’s not about you. Because when you make it about you there will be stress in your home. There will be stress in your job. There will be stress, disunity and division in this church.

But with Christ and through Christ we can be who we are supposed to be and this church will do what it is supposed to do.

“Nothing Special” – Shamgar – Judges 3:31

A woman walked to work past a pet store. One day a parrot called out to her as she passes and said. “Hey lady, you’re ugly.” She was upset but blew it off. Same thing happened the next day. She got a little angrier but went on. The third day same thing. She went into the store and told the owner who had a talk with the parrot. The next day she passes by, “Hey lady.” She looks at him says, “Yes.” The parrot said, “You know.”

Sometimes, as much as we hate to admit it, we do know, right?  Sometimes, at least for some of us, we have to admit that we are no longer as good-looking as we used to be.  We are no longer in as good a shape as we used to be.  We can’t do what we used to. 

I was in Walmart the other day and a young lady walking down the aisle looked at me and smiled real pretty.  I have to admit I walked with a little bit of swagger for a few minutes until I looked in the bathroom mirror and realized she was smiling at me like a young lady smiles at her grandpa.  That look she gave me was not, “Here’s my phone number” but more like, “Can I help you reach something, Papaw?”

For some of us, not only is the parrot correct but it’s worse than that.  Some of us feel like we don’t have anything going; like we have no gifts or talents; we have no abilities and we have no tools to work with.  Do you ever feel like there is just nothing you can do to help make anything any better?  We all feel that way sometimes.

Well, I say we all feel that way.  Maybe somebody like Brad Pitt never feels that way.  He has it going, doesn’t he?  He has good looks, beautiful wife and family, all the money in the world.  People listen to him when he talks.  Why doesn’t God use somebody like Brad Pitt?  That’s what I would do if I were God.  Make him into an evangelist.  Then people would hear about Jesus.

But, then again, if Brad Pitt became an evangelist, who would probably wind up getting all the glory?  Brad Pitt, right?  That would be a problem because God, as the Creator and Sustainer of all things and the One who gives life and breath to all things, wants the glory and He should get it.  He deserves it.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 says, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him.”  God actually specializes in using the weak and the small and the ridiculous to accomplish His will.  That way He gets the glory.

Shamgar was no Brad Pitt.  Shamgar had nothing going for him.  He had a huge job to do and almost no tools to use to accomplish that job.  “Almost”!  We will see that in Judges 3:31 as we continue our series entitled, “Nothing Special – Common Men and Women God Used”.  The book of Judges is between Joshua and Ruth in the Old Testament.  In most of the Bibles in the pew, Judges 3:31 is found on page 172.

The passage we are going to look at is just one verse and it doesn’t tell us a whole lot but it tells us enough.  It tells us what we need to know.  We do know from other passages that this was a dark and difficult time for the Israelites.  They had been beaten down and oppressed by so many other countries so many times that they had very little hope for their future.

They lived in a time when Jehovah God was ignored, mocked and scorned.  People around them lived only for themselves.  It seemed like God must be very far away sometimes.  Maybe you know that feeling living in the United States in 2015, some 3000-plus years later.

But in God’s perfect will and plan and timing, He rose up a man; a man with no special abilities or talents or good looks or money or anything else to save the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people.  He didn’t raise up a Brad Pitt or even a Billy Graham or a Charles Spurgeon.  He used a lowly farmer named Shamgar.  Let’s read it in Judges 3:31.

“After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. He too saved Israel.”

I love those two sentences!  Like I said, there is not much there but it tells us all we need to know about Shamgar and really all we need to know about how we, too, can change our world with what we have to work with.  Now, we don’t know for sure if Shamgar killed all 600 at one time or if it was in different times and places but all signs point to it being all at one time.

We saw two weeks ago studying Gideon that Gideon was in a winepress threshing grain because the enemy would come over the mountain like a bunch of locusts and run off or kill all the Israelites.  That is the picture I see here.  Shamgar is out plowing his field and looks up and 600 Philistines are headed his way, armed to the teeth and ready to kill him and take everything he has worked for.

The problem is that the Israelites didn’t have any weapons.  None.  They had all been taken from them and they didn’t even have any blacksmiths to make any.  So, Shamgar has to make a decision.  He can run into the hills and hide and watch everything he owned and knew be taken away from him…or he can use what he has, when he had it, right where he was.

So, what was it that Shamgar had?  It says he had an ox goad.  Now, this is a shepherd’s staff.  It is used to guide sheep and goats and it could be used for a weapon in an emergency but it wouldn’t last long.  It’s going to break pretty easily.  But this is closer to what an ox goad would look like.  A real ox goad would be made of wood and it had a sharp point on one end to prod the ox or cow to move faster.  The other end had a flat blade made to clean the dirt off the plow.

But my research shows that a real ox goad was typically about 8 feet long and about 6 inches in diameter.  It was heavy and cumbersome because it had to be to persuade an ox to do something he didn’t necessarily want to do.  But that is all that Shamgar had.  There was no other option.  He could either use what he had or run off and lose everything.  Shamgar used what he had and God blessed what he had to be everything he needed.

Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China in the 1800’s and he said, “Depend on it, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply.”  (Our Daily Bread, May 16, 1992)  It was God’s will that Israel be saved.  It was God’s will that Shamgar was standing there and it was God’s will that Shamgar only have a piece of farm equipment to use.  This was no accident just like it was no accident that young David had only a slingshot or that some little kid shows up at a meeting of 5000 people with only a few loaves and some fish.

God can use anybody and sometimes He calls the qualified but most of the time He qualifies the called.  Most of the time God tells us to do something and only after we start to do it does He bless our efforts.  I have no reason to believe that Shamgar expected to kill all 600 of the enemy.  I believe he really believed he was going to die that day but he was not going to go without a fight, taking as many of the enemy out as he could.  But God blessed his efforts and God blessed that ox goad and turned it from a farming utensil into a weapon of mass destruction.  Shamgar used what he had and God blessed it so that God got the glory.

Shamgar not only used what he had but he used it when he had it.  He didn’t wait until he could use it better.  He didn’t wait until it was a little lighter and easier to use.  He didn’t spend time sharpening the tip.  He didn’t have that kind of time.  He just used what he had when he had it. 

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,000 that carried over no balance from day to day...Allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent every day, of course, and use it to your advantage! Well, you have such a bank, and its name is TIME! Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off as lost whatever of this you failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances, it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow. (sermonillustrations.com)

Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  What does it mean to “number our days aright”?  I’ll tell you what comes to my mind about that.  You know how I say all the time that we are not guaranteed another breath?  Numbering your days aright means to realize that we may not live another day or even another hour.  Our friends and family may not live another day or hour.  Who do you need to talk to?  Who needs to hear your testimony?

All you have to do is listen to the news every day and you will see that those servicemen in Chattanooga didn’t know that some crazy person was going to make that their last day.  The family in Broken Bow, Oklahoma had no idea that Friday would be their last day and that sort of thing happens all the time.  I could go on and on.  Who do you know; who is in your circle of influence that needs to hear that you love them; that Jesus loves them and that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no man gets to the Father except through Him?

Use what you have while you have it.  Do you want to change the world?  You can.  Start by changing the world around you and you do that by using what you have while you have it and use it right where you are.  Shamgar didn’t have a choice.  He could have asked the Philistines nicely if they would please move over to the edge of the field where there was some shade.  He could have complained that this wasn’t a good place to fight since he had just plowed right here or that the footing was better over yonder.

This was not a good time or place for Shamgar to fight.  He wasn’t a warrior.  He was a farmer.  But he didn’t have any choice if he wanted to do what Israel needed him to do and to do what was God’s will for him and Israel.  There are no good excuses at this point.  He was fully committed.  He wasn’t going to wait for somebody else.  He wasn’t going to wait for a better time or place.  Shamgar saw the need and was devoted to doing all he could do.

D.L. Moody was told one time that the world had yet to know what it looked like for a man to be wholly and completely devoted to God.  His response was, “Well, let’s find out.” (paraphrase)  Moody, like Shamgar could have waited until conditions were better to do what he was supposed to do.  They could have waited until they were smarter or wealthier or had some more help.  But none of us really have those options, do we?  Life doesn’t wait for us to catch up and rarely does God get the glory if we are completely prepared and able to handle the situations we find ourselves in.

I can’t stand it when people say that God will never give you more than you can handle.  Really?  Because 600 Philistines was more than Shamgar could handle.  I don’t have any doubt Shamgar was a big, strong, tough guy and was able to handle that ox goad like a pro but he killed 600 men.  That’s a God thing.  That’s not a Shamgar thing.  If God had wanted to, He could have used the oxen themselves but He chose Shamgar to be obedient and Shamgar got the blessings.

Shamgar used what he had, while he had it and he used it where he was and because he did God got the glory, Shamgar got blessings and Israel was saved.  Now, are you pumped up and ready to run out and do the same in your life?  I doubt it because if you have really been listening (and a couple of you have) you may have noticed I have been a little vague about the whole goal of this message.  How does this really apply to you?  None of us are going to be fighting any Philistines any time soon.  What is this going to look like in your life when you leave here?

Well, it could involve your gifts and talents, and we all have them.  We have talked about that before.  Maybe you use your gift of intercessory prayer to ask God’s blessings on your spouse and you do that right here and right now, using what you have, when you have it and where you are.

Or maybe you use your gift of knowledge and you do that by teaching a Bible study at your house with your family and neighbors.  Some of you would rather face 600 Philistines, I know.

Maybe you have the gift of serving and you want to help plan and orchestrate parties or benevolence meals.  Maybe you use your gift of singing or your gift of mercy or faith to edify this church body.  Do it now with what you have, while you have it and where you are.  I hope you will pray fervently about doing those things.

But maybe those are not options for you right now.  Maybe God has said for you to wait on some of that and waiting can be difficult, I understand.  But I know of something that you can do that you shouldn’t wait on.  You better not wait.  You can’t afford to wait.  Your community and country can’t afford for you to wait.  Please don’t wait because you can change the world if you do it.

Do you want to change the world?  Do you want to change the world your kids and grandkids grow up in?  It’s not complicated.  You can do it right now with what you have and where you are.  One word:  Jesus!  Speak Jesus.  Live like Jesus.  Love like Jesus.  Forgive like Jesus.  Yes, that’s right.  Forgive like Jesus.  How many times? 7 x 70 times.  Give sacrificially like Jesus.  Pray like Jesus.  If nothing else just speak his name to somebody in need.  Jesus Himself said there was power in His name. 

In John 17:11-12 Jesus is praying to the Father and He is praying for you when He said, “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.”

There is power in the name of Jesus.  Use it for yourself like Brian has encouraged us to do so many times by quoting Philippians 4:13.  What does that say? “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me!” and then use it for somebody else by telling them that Jesus Christ loves them.  Tell them that John 14:6 says that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no man comes to the Father except through Him.  How’s that for changing somebody’s world; somebody’s eternity?

Just like Shamgar picked up that ox goad and found it to be a powerful tool for the salvation of Israel, we, too, can pick up the name of Jesus and have, not a weapon of mass destruction, but a weapon of mass salvation.  You can do that and you can do it right now, right where you are.  Have you asked Jesus to be Lord of your life? 

Have you asked Him for forgiveness of your sins?  Have you repented – turned away – from those sins?  Cry out to Jesus right now, right here.  Don’t wait.  We are not guaranteed another breath.

 

 

“Nothing Special” – Ezra 9

 

Well, I did it again.  I did and I got busted for it, too, but I was shown great grace.  My crime was walking my dogs in my neighborhood with no collars or leashes.  Yes, I am an offender!  I’m a law-breaker and a desperate criminal and I deserve to pay the price.  It’s my fault.  Take it out on me but leave my dogs alone.  They are innocent.  It’s all me. 

I have lived at that house in Bridgeport for four years and every day of the world, I walk my dogs.  It’s never been a problem before but a couple of months ago we were almost home and the Bridgeport animal control officer pulled up in his truck and gave me a warning that I needed to have them on collars and leashes because some dear neighbor of mine called the cops and said my dogs were terrorizing the neighborhood.  If you have ever met my dogs, you know how ridiculous that is, but what can I say?  It’s a law.

So, I broke out the collars and leashes and I was doing real well about walking them with those every day…until one day last week.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  Maybe I was lazy or I was thinking what a stupid law that is or how good my dogs are or how we all hate messing with those things.  So, we took off and we had a good walk and we were almost home when we came around the corner and there he was.

I couldn’t run, couldn’t hide.  I’m busted right there in front of my house and I’m sure the crazy person, I mean, lovely neighbor who called him is watching, laughing her head off.  The animal control officer gets out shaking his head and we talk for a minute about just how many tickets I deserve.  No collar, no leash, no proof of rabies, no proof of registration and something else.  He said for the two dogs it was about 10 tickets he needed to write me.

So, what am I supposed to say?  I have no response except to tell him he is correct and I deserve all of them.  I can’t tell him I didn’t know or that he just doesn’t see them or that he can’t prove it.  I’m busted with nothing to say in my defense.  But for whatever reason, he showed me grace.  He didn’t give me any tickets.  Thank you Lord! So, since then I have not only asked for forgiveness but I have repented of my ways and it has not happened again.

Have you ever been there?  Have you ever been guilty of a crime, maybe not anything as heinous a crime as walking dogs without leashes like me, but have you ever been guilty of something and had no excuse, no reason, no alibi or justification for what you did?  What was your response?  What was the response of the one who was confronting you with this sin?  How did your sin and your response to it affect the people around you?

I ask those questions because this is the situation we find in the Old Testament book of Ezra.  Ezra is between the books of 2 Chronicles and Nehemiah.  The man Ezra probably wrote 1 and 2 Chronicles and was a contemporary and friend of Nehemiah so it’s appropriate they would be next to each other.  The passage we are going to look at is the 9^th chapter, verses 1-7.  The 9^th chapter of Ezra is found on page 340 of most of the Bibles in the pew in front of you.

We are continuing with our sermon series entitled, “Nothing Special – Common Men and Women God Used” and today, as I said, we will be looking at the very common and ordinary man named Ezra.  Last week we saw how God used ordinary old Gideon to defeat hundreds of thousands of Israel’s enemies.  Gideon was absolutely nothing special.  He was scared, wrong and weak all of his life and yet God used Gideon to get God’s will accomplished.

So many times, we all feel like there is nothing we can do to get ourselves or our friends or family or country out of the messes we get in.  We are not smart enough or powerful enough.  We don’t have any influence whatsoever and so we just stop trying.  Now, you might be surprised to hear me say that all of that is correct and that you should stop trying because you can’t do it.  You can’t…not in your own power.

But we will see in Ezra’s story, as we saw with Gideon, that we can do all things with God and we can do nothing without God.  If you feel like you have no talents or gifts and you have no influence or power, you will be encouraged by the story of Ezra.  Ezra was a scribe.  Do you know what a scribe was?  A scribe’s job could entail doing things like bookkeeping or law-keeping, as it were, but basically a scribe was the guy whose job was to painstakingly copy the canon of scripture.  They didn’t have the printing press yet and so they had to copy scripture by hand and they had to do it exactly as it was written.  So that means that Ezra’s great, God-given gift…was nice hand-writing.  Seriously, and you think you don’t have the talents to be used by God?

So, let’s read in Ezra chapter 9, verses 1-7 about how God used this great calligrapher to change the world. 

Verse 1:  After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. ² They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.” ³ When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. ⁴ Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice. ⁵ Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God ⁶ and prayed:

“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. ⁷ From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.

So, what is happening here is that Ezra has just gotten the news that there were quite a few people in Israel who were disobeying God’s laws and Ezra would have known God’s laws from copying them over and over again.  In Deuteronomy 7:3, God is speaking of all those people; the Canaanites and Perizzites and all the other “ites” when He says, “Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons.”

Now, that’s pretty plain, right?  Do you think that verse could be interpreted in some other way?  “Don’t intermarry with foreign people.”  Plain and simple and yet obviously some of them had chosen to disobey God in this.  In fact, verse 2 says the leaders and officials have led the way in this.  So, evidently this was not just one person choosing to disobey God like Achan in Joshua chapter 7 where Achan stole some items from Jericho and he and his whole family were killed for it.  No. This is widespread and accepted at every level of society.

So, what is Ezra’s response when he is notified of this?  I want you to look closely at what he did and didn’t do and then we will see in a minute what happened because of his response.  The first thing it says he did was to tear his clothes and pull out his hair.  That sounds pretty extreme, doesn’t it?  Now, I’m not advocating we do this when we see sin around us.  In fact, this is the opposite of what Nehemiah does when he gets the same news.  If you read the last chapter of Nehemiah (13:21), you will see that Nehemiah didn’t tear his own clothes or pull his own hair.  He did that to the people that sinned.  It says he beat them up.

So, no, I’m not saying that either one is the proper response.  That was their response and sin deserves a response.  It should break our hearts.  It should hurt us that we have hurt God.  That’s how you know that you are a true believer when it hurts you; it pains you; it bothers you and you don’t have peace when you are made aware of sin around you.  That happens because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us as Christians today and we will have a response to sin because He has a response to sin.

Notice what Ezra does not do.  Notice that Ezra does not make light of it.  He doesn’t make excuses for it since “everybody” is doing it, it must not be that big of a deal.  He doesn’t justify it or redefine what they are doing to make it sound ok.  He doesn’t try to reinterpret scripture.  Nor does he get into an argument with those who are doing this, trying to prove that he is right and they are wrong.  He simply sits there and meditates on it for a while.

The commentators say he sat there for several hours until the evening sacrifice.  He meditated, thought about it and rolled it over in his mind over and over and I believe all this time he was preparing himself to approach God with it.  Because as soon as it was time to worship, he did just that.  He went to God in prayer.  He has humbled himself.  He has prepared himself and now he gets on his knees and he enters God’s throne room. 

I’ve said before that sometimes you just have to kick open the door of God’s throne room and rush in and jump on His lamp and cry, “Help me, Abba Father!”  He understands that when your car is flying off the bridge, you don’t have time to prepare yourself and come to Him reverently like you might at other times.  But this is one of those other times and before you come into God’s presence in prayer; before you dare go into the throne room of the Creator and Redeemer and Sustainer and Author and Finisher – and He wants you to, make no mistake – but before you do that you remember that it is a throne room and should be approached with great reverence.

Reading John’s description of God sitting on His throne in Revelation 4 can and should be intimidating and yet we are also told in Hebrews 4 to come boldly before it.  Ezra comes and he comes boldly but he comes very humbly as well.  Look at his prayer starting in verse 6.  In the NIV it starts out, “Oh my God…” and can I please stop right there for just half a second to say this one quick thing that is not part of what we are talking about this morning but needs to be said?

We see and hear those three words used all the time.  It has gotten so commonplace that we don’t even hear it anymore.  It is just used as an expression of surprise.  Well, I just have to say one thing about that.  Stop it!  Unless you are talking to Him or about Him, using His name is using it in vain and He hates it.  So please stop!  Ok, time in.  Let’s get back to Ezra’s prayer.

We didn’t read his whole prayer for the sake of time but all through it Ezra owns this sin.  Ezra himself had not taken any foreign wives nor had his children but Ezra goes to God taking his share of the blame for it as he says, “our sins” and “our guilt”.  Ezra says he is ashamed and disgraced by what they as a country have done and notice he does not ask for anything.

Ezra points out the sin.  He owns it, admits it and brings it to God without excuse or justification and throws himself and his country at God’s feet to do with as God wishes.  It’s that way through the whole prayer.  Ezra doesn’t ask for wisdom or help or anything else.  He throws himself on the altar before God and offers himself as a living sacrifice and as it says in Romans 12, holy and acceptable to God.

That’s what God wants.  God wants us to be holy.  That’s why he gave them the prohibition against marrying outside of their faith.  He didn’t want their faith in the Almighty God to get watered down and mixed in with other false religions.  Holy simply means to be separated from the others and totally dedicated to God’s service.  This doesn’t mean you have to be a preacher or pastor or a monk.  Not at all.  Whatever you do, wherever you are, be dedicated to God, keeping his rules and making disciples as you go.

As you go you will look and act differently than others around you but that’s ok.  You are supposed to.  Now, the cool thing about Ezra’s story is that if you keep reading you will see that revival broke out in his country.  Because of one man; one man who prayed; one man whose only real gift was good handwriting started to pray with a broken and contrite heart and poured himself out to God, confessing the sin of his country as his own and because of that his whole country did the same and his whole country changed and was again blessed by God.

Now, how many of you are sitting out there thinking, “Man, we need another Ezra”?  Yea, because that’s what this country needs is somebody with really good handwriting!  No.  What this country needs is just somebody – even one person – who will do something similar to what Ezra did.  We have talked lots of times about how God has not changed since the Old Testament.  He is the same in the New Testament and He is the same today in our lives.  He hates sin.

I mentioned Achan a few minutes ago.  He committed one sin and God killed him and his entire family.  The only sin recorded that Ezra and the Israelites were guilty of was the sin of intermarriage and not keeping themselves holy and yet God had caused them to be in slavery for years and years.  He had allowed their rulers to be killed because of this like it says in verse 7.

I have to tell you that I realized just this week that I am guilty of some faulty thinking.  I even shared it with you lately.  My thinking has been that while no man knows the hour that Jesus will come back for us as believers, I just thought that these times we are living in surely can’t get much worse and that God will see us as a Christian nation, have pity on us and send Jesus any minute now because life in this country has just gotten crazy.

Now, again, no man knows how God is thinking and no man knows the hour and He might come back before I finish this sermon (and I hope He does) but my faulty thinking has been that it can’t get much worse.  It is so bad here in the United States that Christians have gotten…uncomfortable.  *Gasp* That’s right!  People are even disputing with us on Facebook!  How much worse can it get?

What I have realized this week is what should have been obvious to us and that is that Israel was and is God’s chosen people and yet He allowed them to be enslaved and killed for much less than what we as a country have chosen to do.  Who do we think we are?  Do we think we will be spared the judgment and punishment that God gave His chosen ones?  They were guilty of one sin.  Achan was guilty of one sin.  God does not change. 

How much longer will He show grace and mercy to our country that disobeys the plain word written in Leviticus 18:22 that says, “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.”  That’s pretty plain.  There is no justifying it.  There is no redefining it.  Homosexuality is a sin this country - and I will say like Ezra said that - we are guilty of!

How much longer will He show grace and mercy to our country that disobeys the plain word written in Exodus 20:13 that says, “Thou shall not murder” when we as a country not only murder innocent babies in the womb but then, as we have found out this past week, we also “harvest” their body parts for money like a farmer harvests carrots?  How much longer?

How much longer will He show grace and mercy to our country that disobeys the plain word written in John 8:11 where Jesus told the woman, “Go and sin no more”?  I don’t know how much longer but it can’t be long.  God is merciful but He is also just and He has declared that He will judge sin and that should scare us.  That should scare us for our lives but also for the lives of our children and grandchildren.

Yes, we need another Ezra!  We need another man or woman who will own our country’s sin and who will grieve over that sin and maybe that grief even causes them to rip their clothes and pull their hair but ultimately it causes them to make the sacrifice of worshipful prayer to Almighty God and offer themselves as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God so that this country and our children and grandchildren won’t inherit God’s wrath that we all deserve.

Ezra knew because God had spoken through him in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  God has not changed.  He could still show mercy and bring revival to our country and it could start right here today.  Or we can continue doing what we are doing and allow our country and our children to suffer the consequences.

Tell God right now that you want revival to start in you.  If that means you need to accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord then do that right now.  Let it start with you as you humble yourself and pray and seek God’s face and turn from your wicked ways.  Paul said in Corinthians that today is the day of salvation.  Ezra said that today is the day of revival.  I say that today is the day that it starts with me.  How about you?

“Nothing Special” - Gideon – Judges 6:11-16

How many of you played dodgeball as kids in school?  I don’t think they play that in most schools anymore.  Too many kids getting bashed in the face but I loved to play that game.  The problem was, I wasn’t very good at it.  You know how the team-picking process went.  Two captains would take turns and each pick the players they wanted from the whole group until only one player was left and then that poor kid was just told to pick a team because nobody really wanted him.  That last person was not normally me but I wasn’t far from it usually.

I remember playing dodgeball in the gym in middle school and no matter what, I wanted to be on John’s team.  I don’t remember John’s last name but I remember he had flunked a couple of times and he was bigger and stronger and faster than anybody else.  I know he had a mustache and I think he was already driving and had a job but I’m not sure.  Anyway, if you were on John’s team, you knew you were going to win because he could throw even those half-deflated dodgeballs (you remember those round, red, plastic face-smashers?) to make Nolan Ryan proud.

You didn’t want to be on the opposite side of the red line when John was chunking those dodgeballs.  It was scary.  I wasn’t even positive of the rules back then.  If it glanced off somebody else, did it count?  Could I catch it then or was I out or was he out?  Not that I could ever catch one of John’s fastballs.  It would hit me in the chest and I would wake up in the nurse’s office.  It was a horrible experience but it did come back to mind as I was studying in Judges Chapter 6 about Gideon.

Gideon was sort of like me playing dodgeball.  Gideon was scared, wrong and weak, not just playing a kid’s game but in his life overall and yet we will see that God used this common man to do uncommon things.

Before we read Judges 6:11-16 I want to read another passage that sounds like it was written just for Gideon – and for me – and maybe you, too can relate to 1 Corinthians 1:26-27.  It says, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

We are starting a new sermon series today about common people that God used with the hopes of encouraging all of us, not to live up to our potential but to live up to God’s potential to work through us.  The good news is that if you are a common person, not a celebrity or somebody that is rich and famous, then you have more potential for God to use you than if you were already famous.

If God used famous people or people who were naturally qualified to do the job then who do you think is going to get the credit?  Chances are, people would be drawn to that person but when God works through common people, other people realize that it must be God.  Here’s a spoiler alert:  that is what God wants!  So let’s look at Judges 6:11-16.

The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹² When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”¹³ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”¹⁴ The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”¹⁵ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”¹⁶ The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

Peladophobia: fear of baldness and bald people. Aerophobia: fear of drafts. Porphyrophobia: fear of the color purple. Chaetophobia: fear of hairy people. Levophobia: fear of objects on the left side of the body. Dextrophobia: fear of objects on the right side of the body. Auroraphobia: fear of the northern lights. Calyprophobia: fear of obscure meanings. Thalassophobia: fear of being seated. Stabisbasiphobia: fear of standing and walking. Odontophobia: fear of teeth. Graphophobia: fear of writing in public. Phobophobia: fear of being afraid.  Fraser Kent, Nothing to Fear, , Doubleday & Company, 1977.

Gideon had Midiaphobia – fear of the Midianites and he had good reason to.  It tells us in previous verses that the Midianites would wait until the Israelites’ crops were ripe for harvest and they would come in like locusts and just camp out there and eat all their food and run the Israelites off into the hills where they had to live in the cliffs and rocks or be killed.  Evidently this had been going on for some time and now we find young Gideon trying to thresh wheat in a winepress.

Normally a person would get on the top of a hill where the breeze would carry off the chaff from the edible wheat when they threshed it but if Gideon had done that, the Midianites might have seen him and so he hid down in a winepress where they wouldn’t see but the work would have been more difficult.  This is where he is found by what the book refers to as “the angel of the Lord”.

When you see this term used in the Old Testament, it might mean any old angel and it might mean a christophany.  A christophany is not another one of those “fear” words.  It is actually a manifestation of the preincarnate Jesus.  Yes, Jesus actually shows up several times in the Old Testament and I happen to believe that this is one of them.  Come back tonight and maybe we will talk about this some more but for now, let’s assume it is.

Then the very first thing the angel says to Gideon is in verse 12 where He says, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”  Can’t you just see Gideon as he looked up and saw some guy he didn’t recognize looking at him and calling him “mighty warrior”?  I bet Gideon looked around over both shoulders like, “Who walked in?”  But he answers the angel of the Lord with typical Gideon fear.

“…if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?”  Now, with this one sentence we can see the real Gideon.  We can see that he is scared, wrong and weak but we also see that even though Gideon was scared, wrong and weak, God still used him.  In fact, I’ll tell you how Gideon’s story turns out.  The last thing here that the angel says to him is, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

Do you know what happened?  Later on we see that Gideon, with God’s help obviously, struck down all the Midianites, leaving none alive and what I want us to see is that God used him to strike down the Midianites even though he was still scared, wrong and weak.  God didn’t make him brave, right and strong and then Gideon turned into “Super – Israelite” and killed the enemy.  All through the story you see God using Gideon in spite of his fear and in spite of his being wrong about God and in spite of his weakness.

Now, this is not to encourage us to be content with our fear, or to be content in our ignorance or weakness.  It is to encourage us that God can and will use us in spite of ourselves; in spite of who we really are; who we really are when nobody is looking or when nobody can see that we don’t really have it all together like we might look like.  Gideon was afraid and he had good reason to be afraid.  If the Midianites had seen him they probably would have killed him.  Today you might be afraid and you might have good reason to be.

We love to quote Philippians 4:13 around here.  Remember what it says?  Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.”  That is so true but the converse is also true.  I can do nothing without Christ Who strengthens me.  Without Christ, we ought to be scared.  Without Christ there are no guarantees, no hope, no peace, no joy, no strength outside of our own.  I don’t know about you but that would scare me and it should!

But whatever scares you – witnessing, death, spiders, bald people – whatever – don’t let it keep you from being who God wants you to be or doing what He wants you to do.  “But Pastor Todd, witnessing scares me to death.  I don’t know what to say and I’m afraid I’m going to say something wrong.”  I understand that.  I feel the same way sometimes.

But go back to Philippians 4:13.  I can do all things through Christ.  In fact all I have to say is Christ.  All I have to say is Jesus and then shut up until He tells me to say something else.  Just telling people that Jesus loves them is powerful!  Just say that.  Tell them you don’t have all the answers but one thing you do know is that Jesus lives and that He loves you!  There is power just in the name of Jesus so say it and say it often and let God use you in spite of your fear.

Now, we also see that God used Gideon in spite of Gideon being wrong about God.  Gideon asked the angel, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?  Then he said, “But now the Lord has abandoned us!”  If you look at the beginning of the chapter, the first phrase explains all that.  “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord…”

God had not abandoned them.  It was not God’s fault that they were in this position.  Sin has consequences.  In fact, sin always has consequences.  Speedy let me preach at Unchained last Thursday and I talked about how the worst thing that can happen to us as Christians is sin.  It’s not death or divorce or disease.  Sin is the worst thing that can happen to us because it puts a barrier between us and God and there is always a consequence to that and that is what Gideon and the other Israelites were experiencing.

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman told of a distinguished minister, Dr. Howard, from Australia who preached very strongly on the subject of sin. After the service, one of the church officers came to counsel with him in the study. "Dr. Howard," he said, "we don't want you to talk as openly as you do about man's guilt and corruption, because if our boys and girls hear you discussing that subject they will more easily become sinners. Call it a mistake if you will, but do not speak so plainly about sin." The minister took down a small bottle and showing it to the visitor said, "You see that label? It says strychnine -- and underneath in bold, red letters the word 'Poison!' Do you know, man, what you are asking me to do? You are suggesting that I change the label. Suppose I do, and paste over it the words, 'Essence of Peppermint'; don't you see what might happen? Someone would use it, not knowing the danger involved, and would certainly die. So it is, too, with the matter of sin. The milder you make your label, the more dangerous you make your poison!" (Unknown.)

1 Peter 5:8 says the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking to see whom he may…cause discomfort, right?  No.  Satan wants to devour you and he will devour you with sin.  Sin has consequences and if you want something to be scared of then be scared of sin in your life.  John Wesley said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon Earth.”

Gideon was blaming God for their circumstances.  He failed to realize the consequences of a nation’s sin.  Does that sound familiar?  People today wonder why this country has fallen to continuous new lows.  Well, we have taken God, prayer and the 10 Commandments out of school.  We kill literally millions of babies every year through abortion.  We call sexual sin an alternative lifestyle and we think getting rid of an old flag is going to solve any problem?  Gideon was not the only one who has been wrong about God.

But that is what made Gideon such a good candidate for being used by God.  When God worked through Gideon, it was obviously God doing it and not Gideon.  Again, that is what God wants.  He wants people to know that it is Him Who is doing it, not man.  It’s the same today.  Our country is wrong about God and how better for God to get glory than for people to stand up, in spite of their fear, and say, “I may not understand everything but I give God glory for what goes on in my life”?

Now, look in verse 15 again.  Gideon says, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”  Well, at least Gideon was right about something.  Notice the angel doesn’t disagree with him.  In fact, I think that’s why God picked Gideon.  It’s the same reason He led Gideon in the next chapter to fight hundreds of thousands of the enemy with only 300 men.

I want to say something that I haven’t said in a while but that shows itself to be true in the story of Gideon.  God’s will is going to be done.  It was done in the life of Gideon and in the life of Israel.  It was done in the New Testament and it is done in your life and in this country.  He may have to use people who are scared, wrong and weak but His will is going to be done.  He may have to use a talking donkey, the rocks themselves may have to cry out or He may use a young virgin girl to have a baby but God’s will is going to be done.

You can get on board and you can do your part in spite of how you feel and what you wish and what you think, clinging to the truth of scripture and the revelation of the Spirit and you can be blessed.  Or you can fight it and complain and hide in fear and ignorance and miss out on the blessings and suffer the consequences.  It’s your choice.

You may think you are just a common and ordinary person with no special skills and no real influence…and you are probably right but C.S. Lewis once said, “He who has God and many other things has no more than he who has God alone.”  Do you know how every single one of all the great revivals started; revivals that changed lives, communities and even countries?  Every single one started by some ordinary, common layperson on his or her knees crying out to God in fear, ignorance and weakness for God to work through them.  I’m not kidding. 

The history of all the revivals that changed continents started, not with Spurgeon or Wesley or Billy Graham even though they may have included some of those, but they started with common people being used by God in spite of themselves; in spite of who they really were.  Going back to the passage we read at first, 1 Corinthians 1:27 says, “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

Your friends and family, your church and your community and your country don’t need you to be braver, stronger or smarter.  Well, for some of us it wouldn’t hurt to be a little smarter.  J  No, what this world needs is for us as Christians to submit ourselves to God and let Him be all that we need and more.  You have heard it said not to work harder but to work smarter? Gideon would say let God work through you and let Him be the One who provides the wisdom and knowledge and the strength.  Do that today by asking Him to be your personal Savior and Lord and let Him swap you all your fear and ignorance and weakness for His power and grace and forgiveness.